Creatively Thinking

Featured image:  Inukshuk - Kasba Lake God’s Spirit guides me. I asked myself, “Does God’s Spirit guide me?” In time, I found my answer. The best way I can describe it—and I am a visual speaker, so I’ll describe it with an image—is this: it’s like the light God gave to me on Goeth Island, when I was standing on what felt like the middle of nowhere on Kasba Lake. Facts about the rock on this island: Mineral-rich rock: Goeth Island is formed of granite shot through with seams of stark white quartz. This is the source of the island’s unique appearance. Glacial history: The landscape surrounding Kasba Lake, including the islands, was heavily shaped by glaciers during the last ice age, approximately 11,000 years ago. Glacial action scoured and exposed the underlying bedrock, leaving behind a dramatic and rugged landscape. Subarctic environment: Located just below the tree line in Canada’s subarctic, the northern end of Kasba Lake features barren islands and rock outcrops, con...

  Featured image: Red Flowers - Gifts From God If you have a God, what is your God like? Easy question? It wasn’t for me. God means so many different things to different folks—just ask them. Do you believe there is a “right” God and a “wrong” God? A “right” God or a “left” God? Do you believe God is subjective, as some people think art is—that God can be anything and everything you want Him to be? As most of you know, I believe art needs an objective foundation. So I believe God requires both an objective and a subjective foundation, much like art. I’ve written about this many times, exploring how God can exist yet cannot exist without abstraction. So, if you have a God—it’s certainly easier not to have one—what is your God like? Who do you believe He is? Is He a She? Is your God human? Is your God a spirit?

  Featured image: Flowing River Have you ever considered your moods, views, and insights as fleeting? Or do you think of them as engraved in blood, set in stone, never to change? I used to think of mine as carved in stone. But now—well—the way I think of history and time is changing. I think they are more transitory. When we sense movement and change, what are we sensing? We sense ourselves changing, I believe—I certainly do. For me, when I feel anxiety, I know I am uncomfortable. Something is different, and my spirit tells me something just isn’t right. The sense of grace in me says something isn’t working. My sense of grace is like a river flowing through me; it is like the wind caressing me. And when I don’t feel that, something is missing, something is changing. This feeling, for many years, has enabled me to live with a sense of spontaneity. Mind you, I need a foundation—I always have those rules engraved in my mind or heart—but I sincerely believe I am meant to move on, to cr...

  Featured image:  The Pull of Gravity The only way to move forward in the process of living and change is to build a very strong foundation.

  Featured image: Earth Sings Are you looking for your glass slippers? You don’t have to look very far— for they are within.

  Featured image: How Do I Get There Ask yourself, What is there? Then ask yourself, as you begin your day and pick up your tool of choice in your workspace or studio: What could there be?

Featured image:  Rainbows in My Studio The magical work of the soul begins with you—not someone else, not someone else’s soul. It begins with your soul. And your soul resides within you, not someone else. For me, I can only do that magical work through my art, and when I don’t, it shows—in my work and in me. My studio is where this magical work happens. My art is where this magical work happens.

  Featured image: Wandering I "Not all who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien

  Featured image: Intersections Erased Painting Gen Z Ever since I realized that if I wanted to be an artist, I needed to find a way to support my artwork, I realized that it was going to be a very, very hard job. And to add to that, to find the kind of work I needed to support—contemporary, abstract, conceptual—I don’t think I could have chosen a more difficult job on the planet. Nope. When I went off to college, my parents kept drilling into me, “You can’t major in art.” Well, I did. And just for a safety net, I took a second major, education, to support my “love” of art. Being a teacher was good. I was good at teaching. The trouble is, I was good at teaching. Back then there were no art classrooms; it was art in the trunk of my car and art on a cart, and it was hard. And many times, I was too tired to make something of my own, but I did. I did “art fairs” on the weekends. And so I supported my love, my strong need to CREATE. I WAS A CREATIVE FROM KINDERGARTEN TO THIS DAY. I have...

  Featured image: The Present The Creator’s Creation When I was teaching young adults, and they would do something outside of the classroom—something incredibly stupid (yes, stupid—sorry, I can’t think of a better word for driving on a slippery patch of ice on a curve, fast, as a challenge to see if you can defy all odds)—they always seemed to think at the same time, “Oh, but it won’t happen to me.” Well, it happened to them—and it happens to them. Their “won’t happen to me” eventually runs out. All of my own “won’t happen to me’s” have run out, too. I try not to do those things anymore, but, well, they still happen to me. For the most part, my magic wand still works for some reason—but the magic feels different now. I seem to be, I feel to be—at least lately—visualizing almost constantly the task that has been before me for most of my life. Maybe it’s because I realize more than ever that life is so, so precious—and yes, so short—and all I truly have is today. Yesterday is history...

  Featured image: The Key II Say yes and  Know you  Are not alone Gently explore Creatively expand Say maybe Look for mystery   Magic Align yourself with   Your Creator        Be intimate   With the Source   Of all things.

  Featured image: Rain Raindrops  So many raindrops Hummer’s wings beat  Throaty humming  humming  Ruby throat Jays calling Raindrops  So many raindrops I gather energy from these things To fuel me for the day. When I need some, I close my eyes, and I gather it in.

 Featured image: Celebrate Innovation Art isn’t about art, but about life and its struggle to make meaning out of everything. Art gives the artist a way to speak about their sense of reality and its ups and downs.

  Featured image:  Leaves at the Base of an Oak Tree Every once in a  while your gaze  just stops—stops in  its tracks. Something  wonderful has caught       your eye. Just stops  your gaze in its tracks.  Just stops your gaze  in its tracks. Today my eyes caught the  sunlight glowing on top of the  red oak leaves       in the woods.       They have turned… early.      The red, a beautiful       golden red,       stopped and       bathed in       God’s glory.